The red-cockaded woodpecker is listed as endangered. Decades ago, the U.S. military and conservation groups forged an unusual alliance to help save it. But the Trump administration, in its final months, started a process to downgrade the bird's status to “threatened.” Environmentalists say it's too soon. Jay Price reports for WUNC's American Homefront Project.
The red-cockaded woodpecker has been listed as endangered for more than half a century, but that could soon change.
In the final months of the Trump administration, federal wildlife officials started a process to downgrade its status to “threatened.”
Conservation groups say science doesn’t support the move, and that it could undermine gains made in part with the help of unusual public-private partnerships that have taken decades of work and millions of dollars.